This, too, Shall Pass
by raspberry-rave
Summary: Explain to me this conspiracy against me // And tell me how I've lost my power. Set during Deathly Hallows, it’s a brief look at what happened to the members of Dumbledore's Army under the Carrows’ rule.


**Title**: This, Too, Shall Pass

**Fandom**: Harry Potter

**Characters**: Draco M. & Ginny W.

**Word** **Count**: circa 600 words

**Rating**: PG-13

**Summary**: _Explain to me this conspiracy against me // And tell me how I've lost my power_. Set during Deathly Hallows, it's a brief look at what happened to members of Dumbledore's Army under the Carrows' rule.

**Warnings**: Graphic images, heavy on the angst as that's all I seem able to write.

--*--

A scream tore through the cloistered, suffocating air, echoing off the damp walls, amplified by the acoustics of the empty dungeon. A low chuckle followed, sounding conspicuously out of place. There was ragged breathing and the sound of someone being sick. Someone muttered an oath, and the torches flickered in their brackets.

Ginny Weasley pushed herself up from the cold stone floor with one hand, using the other to wipe away the blood at the corner of her mouth. Her brown eyes were laced with steely determination as she regarded the sand flowing too slowly through the hourglass. By her estimations, she had half an hour of 'detention' remaining.

She glanced at the group surrounding her. Professor Carrow leaned casually against a wall in the shadows. It was he that had laughed when she fell, writhing, to the ground. Blaise Zabini had his wand trained on her, while Malfoy, Parkinson, Crabbe and Goyle held theirs dangling by their sides.

_So Zabini had cast that last __**Cruciatus**_, she thought, talking to herself to keep from going mad with the insanity of it all.

Of course it was Zabini. The pain she'd felt was far greater than anything Parkinson or Malfoy's goons could inflict. Zabini had elevated torture to an art form, and she could almost taste his bitter cruelty during the seemingly infinite moments when her body wanted to die. Malfoy favoured the _Imperius_. She thought it rather fit his personality. Malfoys held nothing as dearly as their delusions of grandeur.

Many grains later, she lay in a crumpled heap against the far wall. She noticed, not for the first time, the smears of blood that adorned it. Some of it was hers, but Neville, Luna and others had each donated some for their cause. _How heroic of us_, she thought cynically.

Malfoy had his wand out now, and she closed her eyes in a futile attempt to prevent what was about to happen.

"_Imperio_."

_Get up_, the voice ordered.

It sounded so tempting in her mind, mocking the cadences of a persuasive lover. Malfoy was very good. Ginny felt detached as her body obeyed his orders.

_Come here_.

Her feet dragged her forward until she stopped a few metres away from him.

_Kneel_.

Ginny fought against the order, suddenly panicked by the direction they were taking. An eerie smirk twisted Malfoy's features into malicious superiority. Ginny tried to close her eyes, and failed. Instead, her eyes met Malfoy's and in a desperate attempt to escape whatever horrors he had planned, she pleaded wordlessly with him to release her. For a moment – the length of time it took for a single grain of sand to travel the length of the hourglass – Ginny thought she saw something flicker in the back of the heartless grey orbs. In a moment it was gone, and Ginny closed her mind.

She awoke later to find the room cold, dark, and hopefully empty. As she searched around for her wand, another's tip illuminated some feet from where she sat. _Not empty, then_, she said to herself and swore at her helpless condition.

Malfoy walked towards her and she stood quickly, assuming a defensive stance. His eyes flickered up and down the length of her body impassively, taking in her tattered and dirty condition, before he dropped her wand on the ground. Ginny didn't pick it up, but watched as he turned on his heel and strode out of the dungeon with quick, angry strides.

On the table, the hourglass deposited its last grain.

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A/N: Read? Review! :)


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